No way I would rent mine out unless it was a trusted friend. A deposit will repair or replace it, but that doesn't compensate for the trouble of fixing it or finding a new one. Plus, in my case, I use it often and would be rushed to get it back up and running. I considered renting mine right after I finished building it to help pay for it, but realized the money I am saving processing myself would take care of the overall cost quickly.

We had some tenants once tell us the equipment rental people came knocking on their door asking for Mr. X to please return he generator they rented last month. We had evicted Mr X at least 6 months ago, so the rental company wasn happy when DH went in to let them know. They made out with a $2k generator & used a bad credit card as the deposit. I am not sure I would even lend my plucker to a friend. DH has had to replace several nail guns & other tools that have been lent out & not returned or returned in less than good condition.

We have a rule here - if we don't want a new one, we don't let the old one leave. Because there is always a chance once it leaves, it ain't coming back. If it's something we could part with, and wouldn't miss, then yeah, we'll loan it to you - if it makes it back, it does and if not no one is upset.

I USED to see an ad on criagslist for a plucker for rent - USED to being the key phrase....that was ages ago...haven't seen it in a long time...I'm guessing something happened...otherwise they'd still be trying to rent it...see what I'm saying?

I wouldn't take the chance with it. You never know when Tim the Toolman Taylor could get a hold of your plucker and turn it into a rocket launcher or something crazy...know what I mean? Could you see someone bringing it back and saying "I fixed your plucker, added more power! You can pluck an ELEPHANT now!"

If you are going to rent it out, get an enormous deposit. You'd be amazed at how much damage people can do to things, and the world has a lot more thieves than it used to.

I learned a very long time ago to not loan my stuff out. Even good friends would beat it up and return it broken and be outraged if asked to pay to fix it. Non-friends will have even less motivation to return your equipment in good condition, or even clean. A new set of rubber fingers is costly and so is that motor and drive shaft.

I won't rent mine. I worry about disease as well as damage. I don't want my plucker somewhere that has sick chickens. It's not the sort of thing that is easy to sterilize 100%.

With that being said, there is probably a good demand for a rental plucker. People with a few chickens probably can't justify the expense of buying their own plucker. It might be easier on your equipment to offer a mobile butchering service and not let your plucker out of your sight.

My husband has already told me that we're not going to rent ours out. He agrees with others on this board, and feels he worked too hard building the plucker for someone to just trash it out.

My dad is thinking about building a plucker and renting it out, but offering a mobile service like Oregon Blues suggested - taking killing cones and plucker out along with offering his help with processing.

What would be a fair price for a mobile service like my dad's thinking of offering? I saw an ad on Craigslist a few months ago from someone renting a plucker for $25/day. If I was going to spend a couple hours at someone's house letting them use my equipment and helping them process their birds, I know I'd want more than 25 bucks.

We rented our out the last two years, and have been lucky, I guess. People have taken fairly good care of it, until this last time. We had one of the fingers broken off and no mention of it when it was returned. It will probably not be rented out as much next year. It's a Featherman Pro, and has been paid for a couple of times over in the rental fees. In the past we have had people bring their birds to our place for a "Plucker Party", if we have the equipment already set up, and charge them $2 per chicken to use the equipment. That way it doesn't leave the property, but the downside is that we usually wind up doing most of the clean up, and there's always the biosecurity aspect of it all. We've since stopped having them bring it to our place, and just rent it.

If you check out the Featherman's website, they have a listing of people who rent their equipment out. It tells pricing and deposits, and if any other equipment comes with it. http://www.featherman.net/rentals.html

If I was going to travel I'd probably do like the vet or the ferrier, and charge a "farm call" fee plus X amount per bird...now what's fair, idk what people would be willing to pay...maybe base your trip fee on mileage and then tack on $1 or $2 per bird? That way you are sure to get your gas money and a little something for loading up and heading out you know?

Guess it would depend on how many and how far he had to go too and how much assistance he provides...there's a lot of variables you can play out with this and I would say the biggest ones are how many chickens and how far would he be driving...then maybe have pricing plans in your head to offer that would fit a few different scenarios. You don't want people to call and heckle over driving an hour to pluck 10 chickens at $2 a piece - that's not worth it for you...but if you quote them a fee to show up and then $2/bird...that would be different I think...

Just a thought...don't know...maybe a poor one...but the vet and ferrier both charge the same fee for showing up - no matter what else they do, it's a flat rate just to put in their appearance - so I get as much done at one time as possible with each and maybe thus your father could get people to have enough OTHER people join in that it would be more worth it all around? See what I'm saying?